DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together
to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion
and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently
organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx
events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

published:28 Nov 2011

views:864

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead, the focus was to discover opportunities and put them to work, rather than wait for work to come to us.
Sharing examples of their work, Mutanda and Qureshi talked about looking for ways they could innovate around the needs of the informal vendors and informal taxi cars in Harare, as well as looking at ways to turn linear waste streams into circular ones in megacities like London.
For the informal vendors, Studio [D] Tale created ways for the vendors to enhance and customise their self-built structures. Shade umbrellas double up as rainwater collectors and, with additional solar panels, can also be used as a point of free electricity.
The studio also mapped out the routes of the informal taxi cars that move around Zimbabwe’s capital city, adding information on points of interest and route-intersection points. In total they charted 58 unique routes.
“Why is the informal world not so well represented in the information age?” asks Mutanda. “We really believe in a design activism and we want to take back the roles that we’ve surrendered to the city or to industry and put it in the hands of people.”
Qureshi went on to explain the most recent product innovations to come out of the studio. These include Tectyle, a textile with inbuilt technologies that can be used to benefit both relief agencies and big organisations in the hospitality sector, and also Cupclub, a reusable cup for on-the-go coffees.
“How can we innovate towards something so simple?” says Qureshi. “Our role as architects and custodians of the city is to keep our cities clean.”
In London alone 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used everyday, which amounts to 1000 tonnes of rubbish and the production of 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Qureshi looked at how to change this without changing the user experience and convenience of take away beverages. Clearly, something was going wrong with the recycling.
“Recycling companies main business model is to recycle waste,” says Qureshi. “They always require waste being there.”
The studio looked to the third world for inspiration and found that the roadside tea sellers in India used shared glass cups, which were washed and then reused and produced no waste stream, and decided to design a reusable, take-away coffee cup.
“Our big message really is to look at the mundane, look at the everyday, the quiet things that are happening. Look at reinventing the systems that are currently in existence because they all need innovation.”

Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wgal

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we began to see spaces that were built for autistic children, by an autistic person who knows exactly what they need to become more independent.
Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb
CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook
CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter
CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram
About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here.
Crafty Cardboard Design for Special NeedsChildren
https://www.youtube.com/CBCArts

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

published:12 Feb 2014

views:727

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work, so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this space that I’ve not only done my best work, but I’ve also shifted my perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, it’s part of the job. Good design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification. Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on researchers and designers to understand context, but it’s up to us to ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has enabled today’s technologies to covertly influence our identities, our politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness – a practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help manage mental health – must play a role in shaping the way we design and use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems, and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of “10 world renowned meditation tech experts.” He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a persuasive technology for mindfulness called SonicCradle has been published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction. Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society – an annual conference which attracts 500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government – where he takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly with the audience.

published:12 Apr 2018

views:31

Art and Design can be the most powerful tools when it comes to using visuals to get people to support social issues.

Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms.Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.

TEDxHunterCCS - Winston Dong - Design Is Activism

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together
to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion
and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently
organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx
events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead, the focus was to discover opportunities and put them to work, rather than wait for work to come to us.
Sharing examples of their work, Mutanda and Qureshi talked about looking for ways they could innovate around the needs of the informal vendors and informal taxi cars in Harare, as well as looking at ways to turn linear waste streams into circular ones in megacities like London.
For the informal vendors, Studio [D] Tale created ways for the vendors to enhance and customise their self-built structures. Shade umbrellas double up as rainwater collectors and, with additional solar panels, can also be used as a point of free electricity.
The studio also mapped out the routes of the informal taxi cars that move around Zimbabwe’s capital city, adding information on points of interest and route-intersection points. In total they charted 58 unique routes.
“Why is the informal world not so well represented in the information age?” asks Mutanda. “We really believe in a design activism and we want to take back the roles that we’ve surrendered to the city or to industry and put it in the hands of people.”
Qureshi went on to explain the most recent product innovations to come out of the studio. These include Tectyle, a textile with inbuilt technologies that can be used to benefit both relief agencies and big organisations in the hospitality sector, and also Cupclub, a reusable cup for on-the-go coffees.
“How can we innovate towards something so simple?” says Qureshi. “Our role as architects and custodians of the city is to keep our cities clean.”
In London alone 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used everyday, which amounts to 1000 tonnes of rubbish and the production of 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Qureshi looked at how to change this without changing the user experience and convenience of take away beverages. Clearly, something was going wrong with the recycling.
“Recycling companies main business model is to recycle waste,” says Qureshi. “They always require waste being there.”
The studio looked to the third world for inspiration and found that the roadside tea sellers in India used shared glass cups, which were washed and then reused and produced no waste stream, and decided to design a reusable, take-away coffee cup.
“Our big message really is to look at the mundane, look at the everyday, the quiet things that are happening. Look at reinventing the systems that are currently in existence because they all need innovation.”

1:19:24

Traditions of Design Activism: History and Traditions of Design Activism

Traditions of Design Activism: History and Traditions of Design Activism

Traditions of Design Activism: History and Traditions of Design Activism

Local artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'

Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wgal

Crafty Cardboard Design Activism for Special Needs Children

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we began to see spaces that were built for autistic children, by an autistic person who knows exactly what they need to become more independent.
Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb
CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook
CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter
CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram
About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here.
Crafty Cardboard Design for Special NeedsChildren
https://www.youtube.com/CBCArts

Design III Time - Political Activism

1:04:08

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

1:05:27

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work, so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this space that I’ve not only done my best work, but I’ve also shifted my perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, it’s part of the job. Good design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification. Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on researchers and designers to understand context, but it’s up to us to ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has enabled today’s technologies to covertly influence our identities, our politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness – a practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help manage mental health – must play a role in shaping the way we design and use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems, and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of “10 world renowned meditation tech experts.” He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a persuasive technology for mindfulness called SonicCradle has been published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction. Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society – an annual conference which attracts 500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government – where he takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly with the audience.

1:23

The Power of Design-Activism

The Power of Design-Activism

The Power of Design-Activism

Art and Design can be the most powerful tools when it comes to using visuals to get people to support social issues.

17:37

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, activism through craft can be at once small, beautiful and powerful. She shows how the aesthetics of craft & design can serve to engage audiences in different ways to the ‘big and brash’ medium of traditional activism.
Sarah has worked as a professional campaigner for the last 6 years for Christian Aid, DFID(Department for International Development) and most recently Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (activism through craft) in 2008 and due to demand set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009. Sarah works in collaboration with large charities and art institutions such as Hayward Gallery, NationalPortrait, V&A as well as organisations such as cult-jewellers Tatty Devine and Secret Cinema. She also sells products, delivers workshops, talks and exhibits her own craftivism work.
Her book “A LittleBook of Craftivism” was released by CicadaBooks and distributed around the world by Thames & HudsonOctober 2013.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

1:10:45

Black in Design: Session 4, Design Futuring

Black in Design: Session 4, Design Futuring

Black in Design: Session 4, Design Futuring

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

22:47

Black in Design: Interlude, Roger Bonair-Agard

Black in Design: Interlude, Roger Bonair-Agard

Black in Design: Interlude, Roger Bonair-Agard

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

TEDxHunterCCS - Winston Dong - Design Is Activism

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than ...

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead...

published: 23 May 2016

Traditions of Design Activism: History and Traditions of Design Activism

Local artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'

Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wgal

Crafty Cardboard Design Activism for Special Needs Children

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we bega...

published: 01 Dec 2016

Let's Talk: Visual Arts and Activism

SVAAlumniAffairs and Development presents a panel discussion with five SVA alumni, who will discuss their experiences creating work with the intention of inspiring social or political change and the role visual art and design play in solving some of the world's toughest problems. The panel will be moderated by Jamie Keesling (MA 2013Critical Theory and the Arts).
Marlena Buczek Smith (BFA2002Graphic Design) moved to the US from Poland in the early 1990’s to study graphic design at SVA. Her body of work includes posters, commercial graphic design and paintings. Her posters have been printed in various publications including No Words Posters by Armando Milani, Design for Obama by Taschen (Steven Heller, Aaron Perry-Zucker and Spike Lee), Graphis and Print. Marlena’s posters have been ...

published: 24 Mar 2017

Design III Time - Political Activism

published: 30 Jan 2018

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

published: 12 Feb 2014

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was th...

published: 12 Apr 2018

The Power of Design-Activism

Art and Design can be the most powerful tools when it comes to using visuals to get people to support social issues.

published: 04 Oct 2016

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, activism through craft can be at once small, beautiful and powerful. She shows how the aesthetics of craft & design can serve to engage audiences in different ways to the ‘big and brash’ medium of traditional activism.
Sarah has worked as a professional campaigner for the last 6 years for Christian Aid, DFID(Department for International Development) and most recently Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (activism through craft) in 2008 and due to demand set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009. Sarah works in collaboration with large charities and art institutions such as Hayward Gallery, NationalPortrait, V&A as well as orga...

published: 22 Dec 2014

Black in Design: Session 4, Design Futuring

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today ...

published: 13 Oct 2017

Black in Design: Interlude, Roger Bonair-Agard

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today ...

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together
to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion
and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently
organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx
events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together
to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion
and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently
organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx
events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead, the focus was to discover opportunities and put them to work, rather than wait for work to come to us.
Sharing examples of their work, Mutanda and Qureshi talked about looking for ways they could innovate around the needs of the informal vendors and informal taxi cars in Harare, as well as looking at ways to turn linear waste streams into circular ones in megacities like London.
For the informal vendors, Studio [D] Tale created ways for the vendors to enhance and customise their self-built structures. Shade umbrellas double up as rainwater collectors and, with additional solar panels, can also be used as a point of free electricity.
The studio also mapped out the routes of the informal taxi cars that move around Zimbabwe’s capital city, adding information on points of interest and route-intersection points. In total they charted 58 unique routes.
“Why is the informal world not so well represented in the information age?” asks Mutanda. “We really believe in a design activism and we want to take back the roles that we’ve surrendered to the city or to industry and put it in the hands of people.”
Qureshi went on to explain the most recent product innovations to come out of the studio. These include Tectyle, a textile with inbuilt technologies that can be used to benefit both relief agencies and big organisations in the hospitality sector, and also Cupclub, a reusable cup for on-the-go coffees.
“How can we innovate towards something so simple?” says Qureshi. “Our role as architects and custodians of the city is to keep our cities clean.”
In London alone 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used everyday, which amounts to 1000 tonnes of rubbish and the production of 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Qureshi looked at how to change this without changing the user experience and convenience of take away beverages. Clearly, something was going wrong with the recycling.
“Recycling companies main business model is to recycle waste,” says Qureshi. “They always require waste being there.”
The studio looked to the third world for inspiration and found that the roadside tea sellers in India used shared glass cups, which were washed and then reused and produced no waste stream, and decided to design a reusable, take-away coffee cup.
“Our big message really is to look at the mundane, look at the everyday, the quiet things that are happening. Look at reinventing the systems that are currently in existence because they all need innovation.”

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead, the focus was to discover opportunities and put them to work, rather than wait for work to come to us.
Sharing examples of their work, Mutanda and Qureshi talked about looking for ways they could innovate around the needs of the informal vendors and informal taxi cars in Harare, as well as looking at ways to turn linear waste streams into circular ones in megacities like London.
For the informal vendors, Studio [D] Tale created ways for the vendors to enhance and customise their self-built structures. Shade umbrellas double up as rainwater collectors and, with additional solar panels, can also be used as a point of free electricity.
The studio also mapped out the routes of the informal taxi cars that move around Zimbabwe’s capital city, adding information on points of interest and route-intersection points. In total they charted 58 unique routes.
“Why is the informal world not so well represented in the information age?” asks Mutanda. “We really believe in a design activism and we want to take back the roles that we’ve surrendered to the city or to industry and put it in the hands of people.”
Qureshi went on to explain the most recent product innovations to come out of the studio. These include Tectyle, a textile with inbuilt technologies that can be used to benefit both relief agencies and big organisations in the hospitality sector, and also Cupclub, a reusable cup for on-the-go coffees.
“How can we innovate towards something so simple?” says Qureshi. “Our role as architects and custodians of the city is to keep our cities clean.”
In London alone 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used everyday, which amounts to 1000 tonnes of rubbish and the production of 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Qureshi looked at how to change this without changing the user experience and convenience of take away beverages. Clearly, something was going wrong with the recycling.
“Recycling companies main business model is to recycle waste,” says Qureshi. “They always require waste being there.”
The studio looked to the third world for inspiration and found that the roadside tea sellers in India used shared glass cups, which were washed and then reused and produced no waste stream, and decided to design a reusable, take-away coffee cup.
“Our big message really is to look at the mundane, look at the everyday, the quiet things that are happening. Look at reinventing the systems that are currently in existence because they all need innovation.”

Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
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Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wgal

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we began to see spaces that were built for autistic children, by an autistic person who knows exactly what they need to become more independent.
Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb
CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook
CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter
CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram
About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here.
Crafty Cardboard Design for Special NeedsChildren
https://www.youtube.com/CBCArts

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we began to see spaces that were built for autistic children, by an autistic person who knows exactly what they need to become more independent.
Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb
CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook
CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter
CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram
About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here.
Crafty Cardboard Design for Special NeedsChildren
https://www.youtube.com/CBCArts

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with c...

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about th...

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work, so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this space that I’ve not only done my best work, but I’ve also shifted my perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, it’s part of the job. Good design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification. Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on researchers and designers to understand context, but it’s up to us to ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has enabled today’s technologies to covertly influence our identities, our politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness – a practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help manage mental health – must play a role in shaping the way we design and use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems, and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of “10 world renowned meditation tech experts.” He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a persuasive technology for mindfulness called SonicCradle has been published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction. Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society – an annual conference which attracts 500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government – where he takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly with the audience.

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work, so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this space that I’ve not only done my best work, but I’ve also shifted my perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, it’s part of the job. Good design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification. Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on researchers and designers to understand context, but it’s up to us to ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has enabled today’s technologies to covertly influence our identities, our politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness – a practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help manage mental health – must play a role in shaping the way we design and use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems, and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of “10 world renowned meditation tech experts.” He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a persuasive technology for mindfulness called SonicCradle has been published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction. Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society – an annual conference which attracts 500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government – where he takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly with the audience.

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, ac...

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, activism through craft can be at once small, beautiful and powerful. She shows how the aesthetics of craft & design can serve to engage audiences in different ways to the ‘big and brash’ medium of traditional activism.
Sarah has worked as a professional campaigner for the last 6 years for Christian Aid, DFID(Department for International Development) and most recently Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (activism through craft) in 2008 and due to demand set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009. Sarah works in collaboration with large charities and art institutions such as Hayward Gallery, NationalPortrait, V&A as well as organisations such as cult-jewellers Tatty Devine and Secret Cinema. She also sells products, delivers workshops, talks and exhibits her own craftivism work.
Her book “A LittleBook of Craftivism” was released by CicadaBooks and distributed around the world by Thames & HudsonOctober 2013.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, activism through craft can be at once small, beautiful and powerful. She shows how the aesthetics of craft & design can serve to engage audiences in different ways to the ‘big and brash’ medium of traditional activism.
Sarah has worked as a professional campaigner for the last 6 years for Christian Aid, DFID(Department for International Development) and most recently Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (activism through craft) in 2008 and due to demand set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009. Sarah works in collaboration with large charities and art institutions such as Hayward Gallery, NationalPortrait, V&A as well as organisations such as cult-jewellers Tatty Devine and Secret Cinema. She also sells products, delivers workshops, talks and exhibits her own craftivism work.
Her book “A LittleBook of Craftivism” was released by CicadaBooks and distributed around the world by Thames & HudsonOctober 2013.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building

TEDxHunterCCS - Winston Dong - Design Is Activism

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help MeDesign the World We Want toLive In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together
to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion
and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently
organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx
events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

For Design Indaba 2016, Safia Qureshi and Maxwell Mutanda of London, Harare and Cape Town-based Studio [D] Tale talked about “Breaking the EchoChamber”, a challenge the studio set for its formative years, where they questioned all existing notions of design and architecture.
“We wanted to meet new people, we wanted to engage with difference communities, we wanted to extend our role as architects – because for us that’s not literal, we are the custodians of our cities and our towns. It can start from a small-scale object all the way to urban design.”
The studio's first task was to go out into the world and observe, record, research, gain insights, build teams of partners and collaborators, and innovate. This went against all the traditional methods they were taught as architects: instead, the focus was to discover opportunities and put them to work, rather than wait for work to come to us.
Sharing examples of their work, Mutanda and Qureshi talked about looking for ways they could innovate around the needs of the informal vendors and informal taxi cars in Harare, as well as looking at ways to turn linear waste streams into circular ones in megacities like London.
For the informal vendors, Studio [D] Tale created ways for the vendors to enhance and customise their self-built structures. Shade umbrellas double up as rainwater collectors and, with additional solar panels, can also be used as a point of free electricity.
The studio also mapped out the routes of the informal taxi cars that move around Zimbabwe’s capital city, adding information on points of interest and route-intersection points. In total they charted 58 unique routes.
“Why is the informal world not so well represented in the information age?” asks Mutanda. “We really believe in a design activism and we want to take back the roles that we’ve surrendered to the city or to industry and put it in the hands of people.”
Qureshi went on to explain the most recent product innovations to come out of the studio. These include Tectyle, a textile with inbuilt technologies that can be used to benefit both relief agencies and big organisations in the hospitality sector, and also Cupclub, a reusable cup for on-the-go coffees.
“How can we innovate towards something so simple?” says Qureshi. “Our role as architects and custodians of the city is to keep our cities clean.”
In London alone 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used everyday, which amounts to 1000 tonnes of rubbish and the production of 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Qureshi looked at how to change this without changing the user experience and convenience of take away beverages. Clearly, something was going wrong with the recycling.
“Recycling companies main business model is to recycle waste,” says Qureshi. “They always require waste being there.”
The studio looked to the third world for inspiration and found that the roadside tea sellers in India used shared glass cups, which were washed and then reused and produced no waste stream, and decided to design a reusable, take-away coffee cup.
“Our big message really is to look at the mundane, look at the everyday, the quiet things that are happening. Look at reinventing the systems that are currently in existence because they all need innovation.”

Local artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'

Artist trying to make a difference with 'design activism'
Subscribe to WGAL on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1XsQa5s
Get more Susquehanna Valley news: http://www.wgal.com/
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/wgal8
Follow us: https://twitter.com/wgal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wgal

Crafty Cardboard Design Activism for Special Needs Children

"People with disabilities have to hack just to survive." ​Jason Nolan, professor of Ryerson University's Early Childhood Studies in Toronto, showcases “Adaptive Designs”, designs focused on helping children with special needs.
»Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe
Being autistic himself, Prof. Nolan aimed to figure out how the world works and how to better the lives of autistic individuals. Most often, spaces are built by people who don’t use the space, and Jason saw a big flaw in that. He believes for design to be useful, it needs to start with the individual user and outwards, rather than with the designer. Using simple materials such as cardboard, designs could be made by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disrupting the normal design process, we began to see spaces that were built for autistic children, by an autistic person who knows exactly what they need to become more independent.
Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb
CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook
CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter
CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram
About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here.
Crafty Cardboard Design for Special NeedsChildren
https://www.youtube.com/CBCArts

Design Activism - Sumita Sinha - HSAD Guest Speaker

http://charushila.org/
Charushila is a small charity working with young people using participation and engagement. Charushila believes that by engaging with children and youth, it encourages their potential and creativity and discourages apathy, vandalism and crime.
The UN designates the 'the right to play' as one of the most important issues for the mental and physical growth of children and youth.
Charushila also engages in awareness-raising on environmental issues through lectures and workshops.

Jay Vidyarthi: The Role of Mindfulness in Design Activism

Abstract
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed powerful unintended consequences of modern technology. Researchers and journalists have been publishing about the pitfalls of an attention economy, the internet as an echo chamber, social media’s effects on mental health, a lack of inclusive design, and more. The hype around an internet utopia seems to be fading. As technologists, it’s becoming more important for us to acknowledge how our context, values and perspectives manifest in the ideas, products, systems, and services we create.
I’ve worked as a specialist in user experience and human-computer interaction in a wide range of contexts, including startups, academic research, hospitals, governments, and fortune 500 companies. 7 years ago, I realized that aligning my personal values was the key to my best work, so I quit my job as a UX mercenary and began to specialize in the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and technology. It is in this space that I’ve not only done my best work, but I’ve also shifted my perspective about the role of human-computer interaction and user experience specialists.
Design activism is not just a side hustle, it’s part of the job. Good design is not just about usability, engagement and instant gratification. Modern organizations with lofty missions to improve the world rely on researchers and designers to understand context, but it’s up to us to ensure a holistic approach. The commodification of human attention has enabled today’s technologies to covertly influence our identities, our politics, our relationships, and our health. This is why mindfulness – a practice which has been scientifically shown to train attention and help manage mental health – must play a role in shaping the way we design and use technology in the future.
Bio
Jay Vidyarthi is an award-winning experience designer and researcher focused on projects related to mindfulness and well-being. He guides teams through a human-centered approach to creating useful products, systems, and services.
Forbes recently named Jay in a list of “10 world renowned meditation tech experts.” He used a lean, iterative process to design Muse: the brain sensing headband, a successful consumer product experience which gives you feedback on your brain while you meditate. His related academic work on a persuasive technology for mindfulness called SonicCradle has been published and well-cited in the literature on human-computer interaction. Jay also leads UX projects for major international clients in a wide range of other sectors.
Jay helped launch A Mindful Society – an annual conference which attracts 500+ leaders in healthcare, education, business and government – where he takes a unique design thinking approach to co-create each event directly with the audience.

Redesigning activism | Sarah Corbett | TEDxBedford

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sarah shows us how, through the use of craft and design aesthetics, activism through craft can be at once small, beautiful and powerful. She shows how the aesthetics of craft & design can serve to engage audiences in different ways to the ‘big and brash’ medium of traditional activism.
Sarah has worked as a professional campaigner for the last 6 years for Christian Aid, DFID(Department for International Development) and most recently Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (activism through craft) in 2008 and due to demand set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009. Sarah works in collaboration with large charities and art institutions such as Hayward Gallery, NationalPortrait, V&A as well as organisations such as cult-jewellers Tatty Devine and Secret Cinema. She also sells products, delivers workshops, talks and exhibits her own craftivism work.
Her book “A LittleBook of Craftivism” was released by CicadaBooks and distributed around the world by Thames & HudsonOctober 2013.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Black in Design: Session 4, Design Futuring

The Black in DesignConference, organized by the Harvard UniversityGraduate School of DesignAfrican AmericanStudent Union (GSDAASU) recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design profession to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by our communities.
Building upon the Black in Design Conference in 2015, we are framing the upcoming conference across the forms of design, to unearth our agency as designers to envision more radical and equitable futures. We revealed the boundless capacity and power of a network of black and brown designers that we intend to grow through the 2017 Black in Design Conference: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions.
While the political climate we face today is tenuous, the forces of systemic injustice are not new. We will explore design as resistance and show how designers are advocates and activists. We will highlight the contributions made by leaders across nontraditional fields in creating spaces for actions and representations of resistance. Through this exploration, we will broaden the definition of design, understanding it through the lens of these visionaries in their work.
Design is activism
Design is coalition building